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The Act and Art of Surrogacy

I stare at the window pane, watching the rain droplets pitter-patter as they trickle in a sensuous way down to the earth. I say a silent prayer for inspiration to write. It’s been gone for a while now. In the name of making money for myself and for familia upkeep, I have ignored my love.

Tonight, I pick up my notepad,thinking of what to write and suddenly I remember a news I covered for the media company I work for. It was on Surrogacy.How babies have been abandoned by their parents in hospitals due to the travel ban, all over the world. The novel coronavirus currently ravaging the world has limited the movement of people in and out of their country. And for this, it is impossible for these parents to go pick up their children after all they’ve been through. I do not want to leave my readers in confusion. So, I shall delve into the act and art of Surrogacy.

Surrogacy is the treatment of fertility in which a woman carries and delivers a baby for another couple. Eggs from the intended mother is removed and fertilized with the sperm of the intended father. This embryo or fertilized egg is then transferred to a surrogate. The surrogate carries the child in her womb and gives birth for the intended couple.

Surrogacy is of two kinds. The traditional surrogacy and the gestational surrogacy. A traditional surrogate is a woman who gets artificially inseminated with the father’s sperm.She then carries the baby and delivers it for a couple to raise. She is the baby’s biological mother because it was her egg that was fertilized by the father’s sperm. In the case of gestational surrogacy, a technique called “In vitro fertilization” (IVF) makes it possible to gather eggs from the mother, fertilize them with sperm from the father and place the embryo into the Uterus of a gestational surrogate. She carries the baby until birth. She has no genetic ties to the child because it wasn’t her egg that was used. She is not the biological but only the birth mother .This surrogate is like a productive powerhouse, a channel from which a child emerges.

Statistics reveals that about 7.8 million women around the world face problems relating to conceiving a baby. In the US alone, about 750 babies are born each year using this method. The success rate of surrogacy stands at 75% and once the surrogate is pregnant, the success rate for a healthy birth is as high as 95%. Like most decisions we take that always come with risks,the act of surrogacy has its in abundance. I only wonder what this couple and the surrogate go through in the process of bringing a baby into the world. Two women from different worlds, perfect strangers. One agreeing to give the other a priceless gift, a child. The other putting her trust and hopes on another woman, to help her bring a child into the world. Nothing could be more beautiful than this.

The sorrow at parting for the surrogate is a topic for another day. Saying goodbye would hurt so much. This is why it’s advisable for both parties not to hear from each other after the birth of the child.

At the end of it all, one thing stands out- no one has it all. A time comes in our lives when we need someone to be our miracle. I hope you find them.